France Come Back To Beat Iceland 3-2 – Video

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

11:01pm Sunday, May 27th, 2012

Commented 59 times

br />

France were 2-0 down tonight at half time, before coming back to beat Iceland 3-2 in Valenciennes.

Newcastle’s Ben Arfa in action tonightThat’s potential Newcastle target Gylfi Sigurdsson on the left During the first period, France looked a bit of a disjointed side, and were trying to string some passes together, and Iceland went ahead after 27 minutes through Birkir Bjarnason, and he was helped by some loose marking from Evra, as Bjarnason beat goalkeeper Steve Mandanda from a difficult angle.

Sigthorsson then added a second on 34 minutes, as he easily put the ball in the net from close range, after Rurik Gislason had been allowed to put his cross in from the right wing, as Evra again was asleep.

We wonder who’s going to be on England’s right wing on June 11th, as Evra is very good when going forward, but he can be mediocre when defending.

There was some evidence in the first half that France were getting their act together, and it was Karim Benzema, who was beautifully set up by Ben Arfa, but the Real Madrid striker put the ball past the post.

Immediately after the break the Newcastle player had a chance as he was nicely set up by Benzema chesting the ball down, but the Newcastle winger shot wide and it was a decent opportunity.

Yohan Cabaye beats Gylfi Sigurdsson to the ball

Newcastle target Mathieu Debuchy pulled a goal back for France after 52 minutes after Ben Arfa helped set him up.

But then Ben Arfa was replaced by Montpellier striker Olivier Giroud, and Cabaye was replaced by Diarra after 59 minutes, and we hope that Newcastle’s mercurial winger has done enough to make France’s final cut to 23 players for Euro2012.

And with just five minutes to go France were still 2-1 down, when Giroud put a nice pass to Ribery, and the Bayern Munich winger chipped the ball home to tie the scores at 2-2.

But then just a couple of minutes later France went ahead, and it was Giroud again, as he put in a nice header to set up Rami, who hit the ball first time into the back of the net for the win.

France struggled tonight, but at least Laurent Blanc’s team fought back in that second half to score three unanswered goals.

I watched the game and I was really impressed with Ben Arfa. He didn’t play any worse than ribery but I don’t think we’ve got a chance of signing giroud because his price will have gone up because of his performance today… I definitely want to sign debuchy though. Him and hatem linked up well on that right side

I watched this match and Ben Arfa was for me man of the match until Giroud was brought on and he had more of an influence on the game. HBA was very good and he’ll definitely be in the French squad during the Euro’s. Maybe I’m biased, but it seemed to me that everytime he touched the ball the French people cheered louder. He’s a very special talent and I’m glad he’s ours. I’d rate his performance an 8 out of 10.

Cabaye, didn’t really do anything good nor bad. It was a solid performance in that midfield and he’ll definitely be in the starting XI against England. 6 out of 10

Debuchy was AWESOME! I really hope Cabaye and HBA can influence his decision as the pundits were saying Manchester United are now after him. He linked up with HBA better than Simpson ever did the whole season, plus he can actually cross the ball. He’s fast, skillful and bombs down the flank with intent. He’d do really well playing for us and it’ll be good for him to join his best friend Cabaye (both have only played for Lille) and sign for the toon. 8 out of 10

Unfortunately I couldn’t watch the game .. from the highlights Ben Arfa was looking decent .. really glad to see from the comments that he had a good game. Based on the hard work he’s putting into his game and the will to change his style for the team he thoroughly deserves to be in the national side It gonna be a great day for me if both Cabaye and Ben Arfa make the European championship .. it’ll also show other players that they can make it to the national side through our club 🙂

All of those Englishmen who use this blog and are opting to support France because of a couple of players in our team need to take a good hard look at themselves and start having a bit pride in our nation.

Can’t help but agree fellas. There are men and women out there giving their lives for this country and some small minded people can’t even show enough pride or passion to support the football team just because it isn’t as successful as they like. I have a feeling that the gripe you hold lads, is with the FA, not the team.

Im not supporting the players but i am supporting England. I do however reserve.the.right.to disregard half the selected.team as they haven’t.even come.near to.proving their worth this year while others who haven’t been picked had excellent seasons. I am not supporting France.but i might stick.somee money on them.to reach the.semis. Been a while since.they had a side of contenders.

LewSpi….It’s completely the FA and not the team or manager. The team is frustrating and yes, we expected better from the crop of players over recent years. Roy is the type of manager that he is, that’s not going to change and nor should it, he is a good experienced manager, just not the one most wanted.

It wont be a pretty tournament, but we should be a relatively tight unit and as we’ve seen a lot this year sometimes that is needed just to get some belief and pride back within a “team”, which is honestly something that has been missing from the England team for a while.

“what was wrong with scott sinclair who has been dubbed new stewart downing or Nathan dyer”

Indian, I’m assuming you come from there and being a cricket loving nation I suppose you would follow a national side that has the best players and plays the most exciting football,but those of us that were born here have a duty to support our nation through good times and bad no matter whose wearing the shirt.

@ibiza (hovis here) lol on the downing comment. Kudos on the hodgeson comment. I believe he’s tried to counteract how little preparation Tim he has by picking many players who play in th same team already. They will already know each other quite well. I don’t like it but h may be doing th right thing.

Redondo….which English players at NUFC did you think would get in to the England team or even should?

STaylor…hasn’t played since before Christmas. RTaylor…Can’t hold down a spot at his own club. Simmo….His own club and fans don’t want to keep him Perch….Had a good half season and has improved greatly, but really? Would you pick him for your national team? Gosling…Nope Guthrie….Nope

I’m sure i’ve missed some, but I think you’ll get the general idea.

Domestically we dislike those other teams you mention, but that’s not what playing for your Country is about. Support for the greater good.

Graham…I wasn’t happy with the sqaud picked, but they didn’t pick themselves, did they? Also, I don’t see how you can support the team, but not the players. They form the team, right?

I think we’ve all vented and said what we have to say, now it’s time to get behind them or the fans and media are going to end this tournament before it’s even started.

Goalscorers

Comments

The purpose of the comments is to allow Newcastle United fans and others to express their views on the news of the day concerning the Newcastle United Football Club.

In general, we'd ask you to be civil towards other readers and refrain from obscene language and any comments on religion, ethnic groups or politics.

The key to all of this is to be respectful to other readers in expressing your opinion.

Please let's make this work - and let's help the Newcastle United Football Club become great again.

That's all we ask, and why we created this site in the first place back in 2007.

Ed Harrison

health update

7th August, 2017

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February 2017 and started hormone treatment back on 6th March and chemotherapy infusions on 13th April.

I completed the chemotherapy treatments on July 27th and am currently recovering from the sometimes massive side effects of the chemo.

The next step is to have another cat scan in early October to gauge my current medical condition following chemotherapy.

At that time we will work out what comes next.

While there’s no cure for stage 4 cancer there are treatments to prolong life

I'll do my very best in the coming months to fight this with everything I have.

Ed Harrison

Kacper Tylenda Website Designer

One of our avid readers Kacper Tylenda from Poland was the person who came in during April, 2017 and redesigned this web-site from top to bottom.

We think he did a fantastic job to modernize the site with the roll-out on Thursday May 18th surprisingly smooth.

I am so appreciative of his help.

Kacper is starting his own business in web-design so if you want a website built or know of people who want to redo their sites in any way – here’s his portfolio.

football club

It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.